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strawberryspence · 2 years

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Hopper first properly meets Steve Harrington when he was only 12 years old. Hopper was patrolling in the afternoon, like he does every afternoon, every morning and every night because you know, he didn’t have anything else to do after moving back to Hawkins after his daughter died. He drowned himself with work, cigarettes and alcohol.

When first sees Steve, he doesn’t even know he was the Harrington’s sole heir. He’s just a kid, a kid too small for his age, and Hopper has to reassure himself that maybe this kid just doesn’t eat enough, it doesn’t mean he’s sick. The kid was carrying planks of woods, too long and too heavy for his frame, hauling it on the side of the street.

Hopper takes pity at the kid and slows down beside him, opening his passenger window.

“Hey, kid. Need help?” The kid looks at him apprehensively. Like no ones ever offered to help him, like he’s actually been alone his whole life.

“I don’t need help.” The kid scoffs back, panting a bit as he carries the wood with struggle.

“Okay? You sure about that?” He hums, nodding, not even sparing him a glance.

“You should bring a wagon with you.” The kid stops on his tracks, realizing that he could have bought a wagon to ease his struggle.

“Thank you, Sir.” He courtly answers before marching to his destination.

Hopper has always been curious, has always wanted to know everything. So he waits for the boy to walk further before following him, the kid walks to the forest and there, Hopper watches as the kid struggles to make… a tree house. Alone. He wonders where are this kid’s parents? Why is no one watching him? The kid goes to the hardware store to buy tools, carries them, builds a tree house half of the day and no one looks for him?

Hopper investigates, goes back to work before going back to the forest, staying hidden and following as the kid goes home. He’s surprised when they enter the rich end of the town, the kid walking all the way down to Loch Nora and… to the massive, always empty, Harrington house.

Oh.

So this was the Harrington kid, alone in the house at the age of 12. Hopper won’t lie, he felt pity for the kid but the burning rage comes first. Because he just buried his kid, the one he wanted for the rest of his life and here’s a kid, who lives alone in a big house with parents that didn’t even care about where their son is.

It becomes a routine, Hopper wakes up, eats some shit breakfast, goes to work, goes for patrols, he uses his lunch break to check on Steve in the forest as he slowly builds his treehouse, he patrols around, checks on Steve again, goes home to eat shit dinner, goes back to the forest, checks what Steve has done, makes sure everything is safe and tight for him, he hammers down nails, because no child should be using that, checks on planks, then he goes home and sleeps. Repeat.

Until halfway through the summer, it stops. The treehouse is almost finished, outside it’s a whole treehouse. But inside, Steve’s still putting finishing touches. At the door, SH is carved out, and inside there’s boxes of food, even clothing and a bed. It’s not a kid’s tree house with toys and chalkboards, Hopper realizes, it’s a safe house away from home.

He only finds out why it stopped when he learns from the newspaper that Steve became one of the best swimmers Hawkins have ever seen and might be growing to be the next basketball captain for Hawkins High.

Steve grows up, throws parties and gives Hopper this look whenever he tries to break up the loud parties. Hopper’s always tries to decipher it, but Steve has always been better at masking what he feels. He tries to keep an eye on the kid, but between him, the Hagan kid throwing too many parties and the Munson kid who he thinks is selling drugs, he doesn’t have enough eyes to focus on just one thing.

Because life is weird, he gets a super-powered kid. The kid he tried to lure out with Eggos. He asks her one night, where she stayed in the middle of winter to keep warm. Eleven answers him, with big brown eyes, hair curling in the ends, “A house, up the tree.” Hopper has to clench his eyes to stop from tearing up, the treehouse Steve built at the age of 12, the place he wanted for refuge, the place Hopper helped built secretly, gave his daughter a safe place to stay.

Steve becomes part of his world, gets his shit rocked, and Hopper wishes he can keep all these kids away from this evil underworld, keep them all in a treehouse where they can just relive their childhoods, free of monsters and blood and death.

Hopper dies.

Hopper comes back.

Hopper does everything he wants to do. He hugs El a little tighter, proposes to Joyce, treats Will and Jonathan like his own sons, they’re little shits but he agrees to as many sleepovers the kids want and he finally, finally keeps an eye on Steve, becomes some semblance of a parent to the kid and tells him that he’s never alone. They never have to fight monsters ever again and maybe they’ll never get over it, maybe they’ll always jump at the slightest blink of a light, will always have to sleep with a weapon, but for now just knowing is good enough.

Now, he’s in Steve’s back porch, swinging on a rocking chair, watching as Steve carries planks of wood with ease. If he squints really hard, he can see 12 year old Steve and it makes his heart clench in nostalgia. There’s a 6 year old screaming, running around, clapping as Steve smiles down at him. Hopper can hear them faintly, as Steve explains what they’re about to do, the steps they’re taking to build a brand new tree house just behind his own home.

“Pa! Pa! Look at my helmet!” The kid comes running when the yard door opens, flailing to his other father as he brandishes the helmet Steve makes him wear when he’s near constructions.

“Well, aren’t you looking metal? Safety’s always important, bug, so good job.” Eddie Munson bends down to kiss the kid on the head before walking to Steve, pulling a wagon full of planks.

Hopper watches as the three try to visualize the tree house, laughing, smiling, just happy. Steve turns to them, waving, turning to whisper something to Eddie before he nods, giving Steve’s temple a kiss and helping his kid hammer the first few planks.

Steve walks up to them, holding out his hand as Hopper passes the second Harrington-Munson kid to his arm.

“Hi, love. Did Peepaw treat you well?” Hopper scoffs, because he still had an image to maintain and yeah, he melts every time the kids of the kids he watched grew up calls him Peepaw but no one has to know that.

The baby in his arm coos, almost like saying a yes. Steve smiles down at her, “We’re building a treehouse right at our backyard, darling. Me, your Pa and your brother. So when you grow up you’ll have a safe space just for the two of you. Just like how Peepaw helped me finished my treehouse when I was younger.”

Hopper blanches, “You know about that?”

Steve laughs quietly, “Yeah. I go home everyday with unfinished work and when I come back the next morning it’s always finish. Also, you don’t hide very well.”

Hopper scrubs his nape in embarrassment, “Oh.”

“Thank you.” Steve whispers, “It was a safe place for me when I was younger. And now I want to build one for the kids too.”

“Your kids will never need a treehouse for anything but playing because yours and Eddie’s home is already a safe place.” Steve makes a choked out sound, as he nods.

Hopper helps build the treehouse with Steve and Eddie. They finish the treehouse in two weeks.

And no one says a thing when Hopper tears up when he sees the wooden door up in the tree house, with SH, EM and the kids initials engraved.

JH is carved at the bottom, written by a 39 year old Steve Harrington, still with the same handwriting as 12 year old Steve Harrington.

#the treehouse becomes like the byers castle 2.0 for the party’s kids #i didnt name the kids #im having a breakdown and wasnt in the capacity to name their future kids #one boy and one girl #steddie headcanon #steddie rants #daeheadcanons #steddie fanfic #jim hopper and steve harrington father and son relationship #jim hopper #steve harrington #steve harrington x eddie munson fluff #tw child trauma

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